TX News - 'Toxic 10' Power Plants/Mercury Pollution - EIP: Texas is Home to Half of Worst Plants in U.S.

The Gilmer Mirror

Jan 03, 2013 | 2475 views | 0 | 7 | |

EIP “TOXIC 10” REPORT: POWER PLANTS EMITTING MOST MERCURY ACCOUNT FOR NEARLY A FIFTH OF ALL SUCH POLLUTION

Overall Industry Mercury Emissions Down, But Progress Uneven at Worst Power Plants; TX is Home to 5 of 10 Worst Mercury-Emitting Plants, With the Rest in AL, MI, MO, ND and OK;

Biggest Carcinogenic Metal Polluters in OH, KY, MI, PA, and WY.

AUSTIN, TX. & WASHINGTON, D.C.///January 3, 2013///Even though mercury and other hazardous air pollution from U.S. power plants are declining, the progress at the coal-fired power plants are uneven, leaving in place a significant remaining risk to the health of the public and environment, according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Coal-burning power plants release millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air every year, including mercury and carcinogens like arsenic and chromium. US EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) can be used to identify the largest sources of these dangerous pollutants based on annual reports the electric power industry submits to the Agency under federal Right to Know laws. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, especially harmful to developing fetuses and young children.

Available online at http://environmentalintegrity.org/news_reports/01_03_2013.php, the new EIP report uses TRI data for 2011 (the most recent full year available) to identify the 10 largest sources of power plant mercury emissions – five of these are in Texas, of which four are owned by Luminant Generation:

Together, these 10 facilities account for about 18 percent of mercury emissions from all coal burning power plants nationwide in 2011. Mercury emissions at three of the top 10 plants (Big Brown, Labadie, and H.W. Pirkey) dropped at least 20 percent last year compared to 2010, but emissions increased or showed little change at the other seven.

The report also identifies the largest emitters of carcinogenic metals, which include arsenic, cobalt chromium, lead, and nickel. The five largest sources of such toxins are:

EIP Attorney Ilan Levin said: “Nationwide, equipment has been installed over the years to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. That has helped cut down on the release of mercury, toxic metals and acid gases from power plants over the last ten years. However, that progress is uneven, and the dirtiest plants continue to churn out thousands of pounds of toxins that can be hazardous to human health even in small concentrations. For example, emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants have actually increased in the last decade in the state of Texas.

Levin added, “Emissions from local power plants deposit mercury and other toxic metals in nearby rivers and streams, where these pollutants concentrate in aquatic organisms at levels that can make fish unsafe to eat. The fact that so few plants are responsible for so much of the mercury pollution makes the solution less complicated; the dirtiest sources need to clean up their act.”

METHODOLOGY

Information regarding the release of mercury, other toxic metals and acid gases was obtained through “TRI Explorer,” the database maintained by the U.S. EPA that compiles annual reports submitted to the Toxics Release Inventory by electric generators and other major industrial categories. See EPA, Toxics Release Inventory, available at http://www.epa.gov/tri/. The data submitted to the TRI is self-reported, and often based on estimates that may vary in their accuracy. The Agency relies upon multiple sources of information to determine current emission levels and develop appropriate limits, so the data reported to TRI will not necessarily match the projections that EPA relied upon in the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rulemaking.

ABOUT EIP

The Environmental Integrity Project (http://www.environmentalintegrity.org) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. EIP has three goals: 1) to provide objective analyses of how the failure to enforce or implement environmental laws increases pollution and affects public health; 2) to hold federal and state agencies, as well as individual corporations, accountable for failing to enforce or comply with environmental laws; and 3) to help local communities obtain the protection of environmental laws.